Registering A Business Name – The Do’s & Don’ts

One of the first things you need to determine when starting a business is whether you need to registering a business name. Registering a business name is required if you are forming an LLC or corporation or if you are using a fictitious (DBA) or assumed business name (ABN).

Registering a business name in this context refers to registration with the state filing office which is usually the secretary of state. There are other forms of name registration such as registering a trade name or a domain name, but these types of registration are done separately and are not covered in this article.

The first thing to do is choose a name for your business that you want to register. You can choose almost any name so long as it is not the same or deceptively similar to a business name already registered with the secretary of state.